Deal of the Day - The Evils of Illmire (OSR Adventure/HexCrawl)

Today's Deal of the Day is The Evils of Illmire, a 120+ page adventure/zine in hexcrawl format. Usually, $10 in PDF, until tomorrow morning, The Evils of Illmire can be had for $5!

The Evils of Illmire is a dark fantasy hexcrawl adventure module for B/X D&D, Old School Essentials, and other OSR systems.

NEWLY UPDATED FOR 2025!

This 126-page zine is 8.5x5.5, with color cover and black/white interior.

A whole classic campaign in your pocket! The Evils of Illmire is a "mini-mega" hexcrawl adventure module designed to provide dozens of sessions of perilous wilderness exploration and dungeon crawling. It features an evil cult, a doomed town, a dangerous wilderness, and a variety of vile monsters. The zine aims to provide plenty of free-roaming adventure content, but with an over-arching threat that looms over the entire region.

Features:

- Tons of content jammed into 126 lavishly illustrated pages

- 19 detailed hexes, each with a unique random encounter table

- Illustrated town map with keyed locations

- Sixteen keyed one-page dungeons illustrated by Dyson Logos

- Easy weather system to tell where its storming on the map

- New for 2025! Complete hexcrawl system with mountaing climbing, weather, and a campaign calendar to track your adventures.

- Full stats provided in bestiary with nearly 100 monsters

- More than 50 new and unique magic artifacts to discover

- Bonus digital content including a custom old-school character sheet

- Artwork provided for visuals during online play or to print out

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Free OSR - Hexcrawl Basics

Sure, other books talk about hexcrawls (I've even done a video on it - What is a HexCrawl and Why Should You Run One?), some folks just don't have much experience playing in a hexcrawl, let alone running one. That's where Hexcrawl Basics comes into play - 26 pages of exactly what it says on the tin at PWYW pricing.

If you are interested in hex crawls and want to get your feet wet, grab Hexcrawl Basics and Blackmarsh to reference the concepts - both can be had for free, and they may just open your eyes.

This supplement is a guide to the mechanical methods of running a hexcrawl style campaign. It is written for OSR-style games, specifically Necrotic Gnome's Old School Essentials, but can easily be adapted to fit others. It includes methods of both traveling through hexes and exploring within a hex, clarifications on rules for getting lost, populating a hex with lairs, determining the range of monsters within the lair, and more.

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Deal of the Day - FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit (multisystem: Pathfinder, P2E, 5E, OSR, DCC)

Hexcrawls. Nothing but hexcrawls :)

I've only heard good things about the FlexTale series of releases, and I've picked up the odd one here or there. I believe I have their Solo FlexTale supplement, and it was full of useful tables.

Today's Deal of the Day is the FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit. Normally, it is 19.99 in PDF format, but until tomorrow morning, the FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit is on sale for 4 bucks.

This book was designed to be the most complete, most comprehensive, most innovative authority on hexcrawl roleplaying game adventuring ever produced.

After more than 35 years of gaming, both old-school through to today's most popular systems, the Hexcrawl Toolkit takes one of the hobby's oldest and most enduring concepts, and provides a passionate and well-organized guide for running hexcrawls, either as part of your campaign, or as the focus of them.  Designed to be used by new players, veteran G/DMs, those entirely new to hexcrawls, and solo players alike, this book will be immediately useful to any gaming group, in any context, using any rules system, for campaigns of any length--even those already in progress!

The goal of the book is to guide readers through the concepts at the reader's own pace and preference.  

If you've ever seen a module or other book with a hex map, and thought to yourself, how do I make one of those?  How do I make the one that's there better?  This book is for you.

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Kickstarter - Renegade Realms: Blackthorn Loch (System Neutral Sandbox)

Renegade Realms: Blackthorn Loch hits a couple of sweet spots for me. It's system-neutral (yet certainly old-school in nature), it's a sandbox/hex crawl (always great for the GM's that like to improvise).

Now, Bart sent me a review copy of the PDF for the first in the series, and although I am not ready to do a review of it (yet), I'd have felt very comfortable having spent 3.25 for the PDF in question: Renegade Realms: Raven's Reach. It provides what I need as a GM, but my style is that of an improv GM, riffing off my players and trying to keep one step in front of them. Your mileage may vary.

Did I mention I REALLY like the maps? And the hexes aren't numbered - for me, that is a plus :)

I'll be following the Renegade Realms line of releases.

Renegade Realms are hand-drawn hex map tiles illustrating wild and lawless fantasy realms, rich with the promise of gold and glory, danger and death! Each map tile represents an area approximately 600 square miles (1600 sq. Km) in size and contains no fewer than six adventure sites fleshed out with area details and NPCs to provide GMs with the inspiration and flexibility to easily build their own unique adventuring realm and facilitate hexcrawl adventures in any system or setting.

Each individual Realm has been designed to connect seamlessly with any of its sister products, allowing GMs to create endless campaign worlds with minimal effort. In addition, Adventure Sites can be built or expanded using the Dungeon Domains line.

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Deal of the Day - FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit (multisystem: Pathfinder, P2E, 5E, OSR, DCC)

Hexcrawls are an often misunderstood method of running a campaign. This makes the FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit a very interesting deal of the day. Normally priced at 14.99, until tomorrow morning FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit is on sale for 4.50 in PDF.

The Hexcrawl Toolkit contains dozens of topics, organized into the following sections:

• Introduction, QuickStart, & Checklists
• Planning
• Movement, Speed, & Visibility
• Navigation & Long Journies
• Points of Interest
• Encounters & Combat
• Survival
• Mapping & Cartography
• Appendix: Utility Tables, Visual Reference, & Blank Hex Grids

 

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Deal of the Day - The Toxic Wood (OSE Hexcrawl)

I'm very partial to a good hex crawl. As a mostly improv-style DM, or at least, that is where my comfort zone is, hex crawls appeal to my sense of wonder. 

Lazy Lich is well known for their hex crawls, and I'm looking forward to running headfirst into The Toxic Wood ;)

Normally 6 bucks in PDF, The Toxic Wood is on sale until tomorrow morning for a mere 3.40

The toxic wood is home to many strange entities; spiteful mutated horrors, ancient insectoid witch sisters, bloodthirsty redcaps, a mushroom witch and a corrosive dragon cult. Noxious gases produced by alien plants slowly coil through the air creating an endless red haze. Anything that is not part of the woods lethal eco-system is rapidly corroded, with all evidence of its existence erased within days.

Details:

• 32 pages
• Single column text
• 8.5 x 5.5 aspect
• Black & White
• Bookmarks
• Hyperlinks
• Random tables 
• Hooks and rumors for your players
• Rules for surviving in the toxic wood using the orb and other means
• 16 keyed hex locations
• Backgrounds for characters to aid roleplay
• New monsters 
• Key NPCs 
• A timeline of events for the DM to structure their sessions around
• Floraof the wood
• Random treasure tables
• Prompts and resolutions for what happens if players take different actions

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DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

ZineQuest - The Haunted Hamlet - and other hexes

Hexes.

Nothing but hexes.

Let us present you with - The Haunted Hamlet - and other hexes.

ZineQuest has turned the month of February into "empty Tenkar's wallet month." I'm not complaining, ZineQuest has had some amazing content. I've covered many projects here on the blog and I've been doing daily Fireside Chats over at YouTube.com/ErikTenkar with various zine creators.

At the moment I'm looking at The Haunted Hamlet. From the creator of Willow and Woodfall, we now have a chance to back Shane Walshe's latest zine / mini-setting / OSR goodness.

The Haunted Hamlet and other hexes is a zine detailing four unique modular locations for your game. 

Made for old school essentials, but can easily be used with other old-school systems or even 5E. All in a compact zine format.

The four locations detailed in the zine focus on gameable content and being easy to use at the table. The locations are not connected to one another and can be sprinkled onto your campaign map however you like, or run as one shots. The zine is graphic and art heavy and utilizes a lot of random tables and other tools to make it easier for GMs to run in a pinch.

Each hex location has its own tone and scenario and they are not related to each other. They each are complete with hooks for your players, timelines of events to keep the pace of the game moving, as well as unique monsters and NPCs. The hexes are designed to be low-prep to run with a focus on what information is needed at the table.

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Bad Myrmidon - PWYW OSR Sandbox to Benefit Mandy Morbid

Here's the skinny:

Bad Myrmidon is an old-school adventure to benefit Mandy Morbid. All proceeds will go directly to her so that she can continue her battle against Ehlers–Danlos syndrome. A bad Myrmidon, for a good cause!

Cowardly Achilles has hidden his treasures in a temple on the island of Leuke. The undead Sisters of Penthesilea want vengeance, the Myrmidons want to protect the temple, and the Amazons want to kill the Myrmidons.

Outside the temples, forest fires rage in slow-motion; feathered viragos stalk hapless men; madfolk torture and burn each other; and nude cultists preach love, tolerance, and self-mutilation. This island is damned, and those who voyage here are damned as well. But treasure awaits!

+Gennifer Bone and +Wayne Snyder contributed the kickass artwork, +James Raggi  wrote an unforgettable hex-crawl encounter, and +Dyson Logos   created the glorious new map.

So purchase this kickass module now!

(Info about Mandy and EDS: http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/get-mandy-physical-therapy-hip-braces/110938 )

Now, I'm going to include 2 sets of links to DriveThruRPG - one with my affiliate link and one without. It is my understanding that my OBS referral commissions come out of the percentage that OBS takes from sales. I will forward all commissions earned through this fundraiser to +Rafael Chandler 

I'll post a review once I've finished reading it. Having skimmed through it quickly, I'm looking forward to giving this a thorough read as it looks damn good.

DRIVETHRURPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/123324/Bad-Myrmidon

AFFILIATE Linky: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/123324/Bad-Myrmidon&affiliate_id=1446

LULU: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/bad-myrmidon/14286243

What's Going on With Tenkar's Landing?

Talk about getting sidetracked, I haven't touched Tenkar's Landing for ages it seems (actually, nearly 6 weeks)

Consider this placed on a back burner for now, at least as far as anything beyond what I need for my irregular Sunday Morning Crypts & Things / S&W game.

Why, you may ask?

I've been dragged into the far depths of the Razor Coast. I'm only about 10% into the main book (plus having read the Freebooter's Guide) and I'm already thinking of ways to kick off a party of newbs into the campaign instead of moving established characters there at levels 3 or 4.

So yeah, the shark bit me.

Actually, I think the Bard Class I'm working on would do very well in the Razor Coast setting. Information can be more valuable than gold, especially in Port Shaw.

I'm still working on Tenkar's Landing as a swords & sorcery type setting, but as I said above - just what I need for the game, at least for now.

Meandering Through "Monstrosities" - Bringing Life to Tenkar's Landing

This is a "non-gaming" weekend at the Tenkar household - I figured folks in my gaming group would either be guests for the weekend or receiving guest for the weekend, and I was right. So, in addition to getting ready for the guests we are receiving tomorrow for the Easter Holy Day I'm also working on some gaming thoughts.

Like - "What's going to inhabit the world that Tenkar's Landing exists in? What kind of monsters, natural and unnatural creatures, humans and nearly humans are my players going to find?"

For a Swords & Sorcery flavored Swords & Wizardry / Crypts & Things campaign, I think the idea comes down to one that is found in the DCC RPG as well LotFP's Weird Fantasy - the best monster is a unique one.

Not that ALL the monsters need to be unique, but enough of them need to to actually make all monsters special. So, there might be a whole tribe of cannibal veggipygmies, but only one Queen Rosatunda, Immortal Progenitor of the Veggipymies of the Ruins of Azagath. Kill her and the tribe will die out. Let her live and at some point in time, the Veggipygmies may over run whole island.

So, i want to go through both Monstrosities and Tome of Horrors Complete, find monsters that will fill the range from common (skeletons, giant rats w/ 2k coppers, wolves) through unique (as above) and the world in between.

There are no demihumans or humanoids by default, although most humanoids could be brought in reskinned as primitive humans or magically warped ones - but they would be localized - none of this "a goblin behind every tress and an orc in every cave" bullshit ;)

As a side note, the OGL'ing of Dwimmermount leaves room for a Swords & Sorcery style conversion of the megadungeon...

In This Corner, Weighing in at Six Hexes - Tenkar's Landing and the Surrounding Landsi

Tenkar's Landing is where the new campaign will kick off. A den if villainy and thieves - it is run by merchants after all ;)

I'll map out the town later.

To kick the campaign off, I want them to get their blades wet so to speak. I'm thinking of setting Sailors of the Starless Sea on the north edge of the mountains in hex 1313 and dropping some adventure leads in their laps at the beginning of the session. The DCC Adventures have a nice Swords & Sorcery feel in general.

Maybe leave them some hints of the activity going on in the ruins to the south west of the mountains and the tomb to the south east. Oh and something on the other side of the river - maybe hex 1512.

I need to tweak up some S&S flavored encounter tables ;)

Where Do the Cannibal Veggipygmies Live?

So, where do the Cannibal Veggipygmies live? Probably The Ruins of Azagoth.

Egaden, The Two Headed Ogre? The mountains around The Tomb of the Damned.

The mysterious Red Wizard? In his tower on the south end of the isle.

Who was "Thocar" and who rules Thocar's Castle and the surrounding lands these days?

Just how large is Tenkar's Landing, and is it really ruled by the Merchant's Guild? What of the Privateer  Cyrus the Bold and his influence?

What is the name of the island anyway?

I am finding the easiest way to finding answers is to ask the right questions ;)

Zooming In on Tonight's Map Work - Tenkar's Landing and the Surrounding Areas

This would be, for all intents and purposes, the initial "sandbox" for the players in my Crypts & Things Campaign.

I'm still trying to put everything together, and locations and and names are subject to change.

So, for the brief outline:

Tenkar's Landing will be the starting point. A large merchant town that does much trade by sea. Nominally under control of the current occupant sitting on the throne at Thocar's Castle. So long as Tenkar's Landing pays it's taxes, the merchant are left to run the town as they will.

Ruins of Azagath - this might become a "mini sandbox", as I see this as a remains of a mad sorcerer's tower. The explosion was large enough to partially destroy the mountain in hex 1213 and laid ruin to hexes 1214 and 1314. There are rumors of treasure and possibly magic still left in the ruins. The creatures that roam hexes 1214 and 1314 are believed to be cursed.

Tomb of the Damned - place holder for a newbie adventure - either the one in the C&T book or the Halls of Nizar-Thun or one of my own creation (or a DCC RPG adventure conversion).

Alright, not bad for a night's work ;)

Played With Hexographer This Evening and Here's The Results

Not bad for screwing around with a program and not reading how to make it work ;)

I like the way it came out. I'm thinking the island in the lower center would be where the party would start out. It limits their ability to go all screwy on me before they level up a bit.

I need to add a crapload of locations, populations, sites of interest and the like but it's a damn good start for less than 2 hrs work.

I may also change around some of the terrain, but that's neither here nor there at the moment - I need something to work from and I'm surprised at how quickly it came together.

Definitely for the Crypts & Things Campaign, so any empires are in decline. I see it more city-states and less nations, but who knows as it get's fleshed out.

I'm going to give Hexographer "Two Thumbs Up!", because if it can make my mapping look decent, it's got to be an amazing program ;)

I'm leaning towards 6 miles per hex, which makes the initial island roughly 15-20 miles wide and 65 miles long. Decent sized area to adventure in I think. A "sandbox with walls" for the early levels.

Mini Review - Hex Crawls 3: Beyond the Black Water (Swords & Wizardry)

Hex Crawls can lead to a wonderful campaign, if the GM is up to the task.  They are never as simple as running a prewritten adventure, but in the right hands it can lead to many sessions of gaming.  This is why I find people either loved the old Judges Guild products or they hated them - they were ingredients to create your own masterpiece, with no two campaigns ever looking the same.  Some folks want more of a a detailed list of situations.

I find myself these days really appreciating the "Hex Crawl" type of products.  They are pretty much direct opposites of what WotC puts out for their settings.  Lean, mean and lots of green (outdoors) is what I like these days.

Beyond the Black Water fits the bill of what I look for in a Hex Crawl type products - lots of adventure seeds with hexes that aren't so large as to defeat the purpose of a hex crawl.  6 miles wide is just about perfect in my opinion.  It makes for a nice, localized campaign setting

The PDF is bookmarked (as well it should be) and we get a handful of new creatures at the end, but I do have one complaint.  The map takes up about half a page.  If they had changed it's orientation to sideways, it would have been a full page and much easier to use, never mind the increased usability.  As this is a PDF product I'm looking at, they could always tack on a full page map to an update of the file.  Just an idea.

Otherwise, it's a nice setting.  Dangerous as all hell, but still nice ;)

From the blurb:


When the game was invented and sold in a little woodgrain box, the author told us a required supplement was an Avalon Hill game called Outdoor Survival. This was a wilderness survival game that consisted of a hexagonal map system that players would travel around, trying to find their way back to civilization, all the while trying not to die of thirst or get eaten by bears. This game map was used as the first wilderness "hex-crawl" for what eventually became D&D. Later, Judges Guild took this to a whole new level with the Wilderlands series. For many years, hex crawling was just the way the game was played. This series brings that back, or supplements existing games that use that system of travel.


What a hex crawl is, literally, is a wilderness sandbox of areas, encounters and villages that players travel around in. It provides no story line, just hundreds of story hooks and possibilities. An example of what this looks like that I published a few years ago can be found at:
http://www.necromancergames.com/pdf/lenap/lenap.pdf

3--Beyond Black Water
These books provide a sub-setting in your own campaign world. They populate the world, and allow you to let your players explore that world, rather than just "travel 20 days" to the dungeon. Written by John Stater of NOD fame, each of these supplements details an area with a specific theme. Monster and NPC statistics are provided for each encounter area detailed.

Among the reasons many adventurers choose to end their day in the cannibal-ridden, hurricane-savaged isles of the south is the immense distance it puts between them and the terrible land beyond the Black Water. The Black Water is a great inland sea filled with black, viscous water that sits as still as death. Nobody but a fool would willingly cross the Black Water, save for the strange men who sail the black arks, but many fools have crossed those waters in search of a lost love or a secret taken to the grave, for beyond the Black Water and its grey shores lies the icy Land of the Dead.